I shall leave my reader to meditate alone upon the remainder of our section. He will find that each statute teaches a double lesson, namely, a lesson with respect to nature's evil tendencies, and also a lesson as to Jehovah's tender care.[24] [24] Verses 16 and 17 demand special attention. "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people." This is a most seasonable admonition for the people of God in every age. A talebearer is sure to do incalculable mischief. It has been well remarked that a talebearer injures three persons--he injures himself, he injures his hearer, and he injures the subject of his tale. All this he does directly; and as to the indirect consequences, who can recount them? Let us carefully guard against this horrible evil. May we never suffer a tale to pass our lips; and let us never stand to hearken to a talebearer. May we always know how to drive away a backbiting tongue with an angry countenance, as the north wind driveth away rain. In verse 17, we learn what ought to take the place of talebearing. "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." In place of carrying to another a tale about my neighbor, I am called upon to go directly to himself and rebuke him, if there is any thing wrong. This is the divine method. Satan's method is to act the talebearer. CHAPTERS XXI. & XXII. These chapters unfold, with great minuteness of detail, the divine requirements in reference to those who were privileged to draw near as priests to "offer the bread of their God." In this, as in the preceding section, we have conduct as the _result_, not the procuring _cause_ of the relationship. This should be carefully borne in mind. The sons of Aaron were, in virtue of their birth, priests unto God. They all stood in this relationship, one as well as another. It was not a matter of attainment, a question of progress, something which one had and another had not. All the sons of Aaron were priests; they were born into a priestly place. Their capacity to understand and enjoy their position and its attendant privileges was obviously a different thing altogether. One might be a babe, and another might have reached the point of mature and vigorous manhood. The former would, of necessity, be unable to eat of the priestly food, being a babe, for whom "milk," and not "strong meat," was adapted; but he was as truly a member of the priestly house as the man who could tread, with firm step, the courts of the Lord's house, and feed upon "the wave breast" and "heave shoulder" of the sacrifice.